. >> i'm is going to stop the subsidy to pbs. i like pbs. i love big bird. i like you too. but i'm not going to keep on spending money on things to borrow money from china to pay for. >> reporter: seconds after governor romney uttered those world twitter nearly tumbled over. at one point 17,000 big bird tweets per minute. "the social network" said it was the most tweeted about political event in u.s. history. ari fleischer, big bird needs to ask dora the explorer how she manages to live without taxpayer money. try it big bird. joan rivers, attention pbs, if mitt romney fires big bird i'm ready to fill in. i got the perfect outfit. president obama did not pounce directly during the debates but he did thursday on the trail. >> when he was asked what he would actually do to cut the deficit and reduce spending, he said he would eliminate funding for public television. thank goodness somebody is finally getting tough on big bird. it's about time. we didn't know that big bird was driving the federal deficit. >> reporter: last night the late night shows had fun with it too. [ blee